Melbourne comedy festival review by Steve Bennett

Omnishambles doesn’t quite do justice to the car-crash chaos of Zanzoop – but it’s a gloriously silly omnishambles of lunatic invention and insanely intense execution, with the knockabout attitude of a gang show.

Despite being a team effort, it’s usually only frontman Sam Campbell who indulges in that fourth-wall demolition, leaving his three sidekicks to play it straight – even whatever bizarre skit they are playing out could never be described as ‘straight’.

Yes, he may be covered in green body paint, with deflated party balloons for breasts, but that doesn’t mean Campbell is going to commit to the character, forever leaping out of the moment for asides about how ridiculous this all is, how he’s spent his rent on dodgy props or how his colleague inadvisedly quit university for this nonsense.

The paint is because he plays the titular Zanzoop, a semi-naked space alien, hosting a sort of chat show in an attempt to fix humanity’s problems and prove himself a worthy heir to the throne of Zymbalnation. And this is one of the more sober premises of the hour.

Tom Walker, Craig Anderson and Aaron Chen conjure up tennis ballboy Keiran under the hypnotising spell of his svengali, Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan discussing Shanghai Moon, a horny bird, a semi-coherent Baz Luhrmann and the nightmare-inducing King Baby, slathering body lotion over himself in the creepiest, most liberal way imaginable. Oh and we mustn’t forget the carrot scene, quite a savvy and almost delicate piece of physical comedy amid the madness.

Campbell, a best newcomer nominee last year, walks a knife edge between adorable anarchy and clumsy failure, a bit like John Conway did before him. There are awkward pauses that throw off the rhythm and sudden outbursts about whatever’s concerning him. Perhaps in some performances, the wheels come flying off – you certainly get that impression – but Campbell kept the charabanc on the road tonight, more or less, whipping up a storm of alternative WTF comedy oddness, the likes of which you’ve never seen before.

All hail Zanzoop, our new cult comedy overlord.

Review date: 12 Apr 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett